Illumination of Manuscripts, the art of painting manuscripts with miniatures and ornaments, an art of the most remote antiquity. The Egyptian papyri containing portions of the Ritual or 'Book of the Dead' are ornamented with veritable drawings and coloured pictures. Except these papyri, no other manuscripts of antiquity were, strictly speaking, illuminated; such Greek and Roman manuscripts of the 1st century as have reached the present day being written only. Pliny, indeed, mentions from Varro that authors had their portraits painted on their works, and refers to a biographical work, with numerous portraits introduced, but all such have disappeared in the wreck of ages; the oldest illuminated MSS. which have survived being the Dioscorides of Vienna and the Virgil of the Vatican, both of the 4th century, and ornamented with vignettes or pictures in the Byzantine style of art. St Jerome, indeed, in the same century, complains of the abuse of the practice, as shown by filling up books with capital letters of preposterous size. The Byzantine style strongly influenced every other early style throughout the West, and its influence can be traced as late as the 11th century.
The art of illuminating manuscripts with gold and silver letters is supposed to have been derived from Egypt, but it is remarkable that no papyrus has any gold or silver introduced into it. The artists who painted in gold, called Chrysographi, are mentioned as early as the 2d century. One of the oldest manuscripts of this style is the Codex Argenteus of Ulfilas (360 A.D.); and the charter of foundation of Newminster at Winchester by King Edgar (966 A.D.), six centuries later, shows the use of these letters. Gold letters seem to have been used in the East during the 12th and 13th centuries. At an early period the use of illuminated or decorated initial letters commenced—to be distinguished from the illuminated or painted pages placed at the head of Byzantine manuscripts. Originally they were not larger than the text, or more coloured; but the Syriac manuscripts of the 7th century have them with a pattern or border; and they go on increasing in size and splendour from the 8th to the 11th century, when large initial letters, sometimes decorated with little pictures or miniatures, came into fashion in the Greek and Latin manuscripts. The subjects of the figures mixed up with the arabesque ornaments often referred to the texts; warriors and warlike groups of figures being introduced when the text referred to war, symbolical representations of hell where the chapters following treated on that region. These initial letters soon increased to a great size, being from 2 to 24 inches long; they were most used in the 8th and 9th centuries, but continued till the 12th century, and degenerated in the 16th to the last decadence of art—the grotesque. In the 13th century burnished gold was used as a background for letters and miniatures, and so finely were these backgrounds executed that they appear like plates of solid gold. The art which flourished in the eastern and western empires passed over to Ireland, and there gave rise to a separate school or kind of illumination. This style, which consists in a regular series of interlaced ribbon ornaments, often terminating in the heads of gryphons and other animals, seems to have been derived from the later patterns of Byzantine art, seen on mosaics, mural paintings, and other objects. This Celtic style is finely exhibited in the remarkable MS. at Trinity College, Dublin, known as the 'Book of Kells,' which is believed to be of the 9th century. The minute size and number of the interlacings is quite wonderful.
The Hiberno-Saxon style is seen in the so-called Durham Book in the British Museum (Cott. MS. Nero D. IV.), which is only second to the Book of Kells in beauty. It was written by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne (died 721), in honour of St Cuthbert. The various schools of art in the middle ages found their homes in the different monasteries, and the so-called Opus Anglicum is exhibited in the Benedictine now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. This was produced at the Old Minster at Winchester, and was executed by Godemann (afterwards abbot of Thorney) for Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester (963–984).
In the 12th century a new style arose which was distinguished by the profusion of its ornamentation, intricate modes of illumination, and abundant use of gold and silver. In the 13th century the art still more deteriorated in western Europe, but the manuscripts of the 14th century show a great advance in painting over the works of previous centuries. Dante's Divina Commedia in the British Museum (Egerton MS. 943) is a fine specimen of the work of Italian artists in this century. The Arundel Psalter, also in the British Museum (Arundel MS. 83), is a noble work of English artists. It was given by Robert de Lyle to his daughter Audrey in 1339.
In the 15th century the art of miniature began to decline in England, and the finest works were produced by foreign painters. This is the case with the famous Bedford Missal in the British Museum. It was prepared for John, Duke of Bedford, son of Henry IV. and Regent of France, on his marriage in 1423 with the daughter of John, Duke of Burgundy. The duchess presented the MS. (with her husband's consent) to Henry VI. on Christmas Eve, 1430. In this same century were produced the celebrated choir books in the cathedral of Siena, by Girolamo da Cremona and Liberale da Verona, who were paid for their work in 1468 and 1472-73. One of the most beautiful specimens of the work of the next century is the Book of Hours of Anne of Brittany, wife of Louis XII., which has borders of natural plants on a gold ground. The artist to whom we are indebted for this priceless monument of French art at the period of the Renaissance was Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521).
The usual mode of production adopted in the Scriptorium was for the scribe to rule a space for his text in accordance with the general design, and to write within these limits. He was followed by the illuminator of initials, borders, and ornamental accessories. Then came the miniaturist. St David, the patron saint of Wales, is said to have been an assiduous illuminator, and among the most celebrated miniaturists may be mentioned Giotto (1276-1337), Fra Angelico (1389-1455), Attavante (1455-1520), Julio Clovio (1498-1578), Vincenzo Raimondo (died 1557), and Boccardino (16th century). Raphael and Jan van Eyck might be added to the list. That splendid example of Flemish illumination, the Franciscan Breviary of Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-1523), has been attributed to Memling, but later inquiries have proved that he had nothing to do with it.
In the reign of Louis XIV. the art became extinct, ending with a style of painting called camaieu gris, a kind of monochrome, in which the lights are white or gold, and shaded so as to emulate bas-reliefs. Among oriental nations the Persians, Hindus, and Chinese have illuminated manuscripts of great beauty, none of which, however, can compete with those of the western nations in antiquity. For beauty of design some of the Arab manuscripts are charming, but their antiquity does not reach beyond the 13th century. The Chinese Buddhists have also illuminated classics, or religious books of their sect, one of which, the Diamond Book, as it is called, in the British Museum, has a text splendidly printed in silver and gold letters on a blue ground, and the vignettes charmingly painted in tempera, on macerated leaves of the Ficus Indica.
See J. W. Bradley, Manual of Illumination (1861); Dictionary of Miniaturists (3 vols. 1887-89); H. Shaw, The Art of Illumination (1866); W. & G. Audsley, Guide to Illuminating and Missal Painting (1861); De Gray Birch & Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations (1879); J. H. Middleton, Illuminated Manuscripts (1892); Falconer Madan, Books in Manuscript (1893).